hantsweb Newshttp://www3.hants.gov.uk
hantsweb News RSS feed
Greatham children say goodbye to the car for a safer, healthier school runhttp://www3.hants.gov.uk/hantswebnewslist.htm?id=669258http://www3.hants.gov.uk/hantswebnewslist.htm?id=669258
Greatham children say goodbye to the car for a safer, healthier school run

Thursday, 26 February 2015

Pupils at Greatham Primary School have decided to take action to reduce the problems of traffic congestion on the school run and improve safety for pedestrians outside the school gates.

The village school had extremely low walking rates (as few as 14% of children are currently walking to school on a regular basis), so the school has been working hard to increase the children's awareness of active travel through Hampshire County Council's My Journey initiatives. This has resulted in scooter training for all children, Bikeability training for year 5, a "Biker's Breakfast" for children cycling to school as well as pedestrian training for year 2. The school has also recently acquired two scooter storage pods to enable scooters to be left safely at school during the day.

The school's Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs) have been encouraging their peers to walk to school as much and as often as possible, even if they only walk part of the journey. Following a route audit to help them assess a safe walking route to school, the school has persuaded St John's Church and the Greatham Inn to let parents park in their car parks and walk the last five minutes to school, known as 'Park and Stride'. The staff and JRSOs took steps to motivate pupils by demonstrating that parking a little further away from school and walking part of the way not only helps children keep fit but is also fun, making it safer for everyone by keeping cars, and pollution, away from the immediate vicinity of the school.

On Wednesday 25 February, as a reward for the school's work towards a sustainable travel plan, Hampshire County Council organised a 'scientific' themed walk to school from St John's Church in a move designed to get the walking children noticed and to motivate others to join in. This was followed by two scientific theatre shows put together by Histrionics linking the school's chosen theme with sustainable travel messages.

Hampshire County Council's School Travel Planning Team works alongside schools, parents and communities to encourage even more pupils to travel in a sustainable way to school. Recognition for this work comes through the national STARS scheme, run by Modeshift, which was rolled out to all schools in England at the end of 2014. Greatham hope that, in addition to their sustainable travel activities to date, by launching their new Park and Stride sites they will have now achieved Bronze STARS status.

Head teacher and sustainable travel champion Jo Goman commented, "At Greatham Primary School, we value our environment and we value walking. We are encouraged by the number of children persuading their parents to leave the car further away from school so they can walk, cycle or scoot the rest of the way."

Hampshire County Council's Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment, Councillor Seán Woodward, added: "By walking, scooting, cycling and using public transport for school journeys, we can all really help reduce congestion and pollution in the local area whilst increasing the safety of our children, bringing benefits to all and making Greatham an even nicer place to live."

The Modeshift STARS (Sustainable Travel Accreditation Scheme) is funded by the Department for Transport's Hampshire Sustainable Transport Towns Fund (HSTT). The objectives of the Government's fund are to reduce congestion at peak times, and to reduce carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. These objectives will be met at a local level, through 'My Journey' initiatives to encourage less use of the private car and a more active lifestyle by encouraging walking, cycling, use of public transport or car sharing to travel around, particularly for local journeys.

Hampshire County Council's 'Park and Stride' initiative, supported by the My Journey project, aims to help schools to identify suitable sites for parents to park so that even if they have to drive their children to school, they can at least walk 5 to 10 minutes to school. This helps to keep traffic away from the school gate, making it safer for everyone and so enabling more active ways of travelling, including cycling.

The My Journey project is funded by the Department of Transport as part of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) aimed at reducing carbon and supporting economic growth.

The 'My Journey' campaign, to encourage people to consider their travel options for everyday journeys and to try alternative ways of travelling instead of in their car. Leaving the car at home can save people money, increase their level of physical activity and help to reduce congestion and carbon emissions.

Hampshire County Council Leader Roy Perry said Hampshire is immensely proud to learn that a serviceman from the county has been awarded Britain's highest military honour for his gallantry.

Lance Corporal Joshua Leakey, 27, of the Parachute Regiment has been awarded the Victoria Cross. It recognises his valour when he showed "complete disregard" for his own safety during a Taliban attack in Afghanistan. He is the third serviceman - and the first living serviceman - to receive the medal for service in Afghanistan.

Cllr Perry said:

"The actions of Lance Corporal Leakey deserve our greatest respect. He epitomises the bravery, courage and selflessness of our servicemen from all three military forces in all they do to serve the cause of freedom in battlefields around the world. We are immensely proud that this honour has been awarded to a serviceman from Hampshire, home to the largest contingent of armed forces personnel in the country."

Hampshire County Council has welcomed a planned electoral review by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England.

Members of the Council were briefed by the Commission on Thursday 19 February as part of their preliminary work.

The review has been prompted by electoral data from 2013, indicating that in a third of all the County Council's 75 electoral divisions, there was more than a ten per cent difference (plus or minus) in the number of electors compared to the average for the county.

Following the briefing, Chief Executive, Andrew Smith commented: "It's been ten years since the last review, and in that time, demographic changes have seen an increase in the electorate in some areas of the county, leading to an uneven balance, with some councillors representing more Hampshire residents than others.

"It is vitally important that all voters are adequately represented on the County Council, and that the identities and interests of local communities are suitably reflected so that we can continue to ensure effective local, county government and maintain our strong performance in meeting the needs of Hampshire residents.

"For that reason, we very much welcome this review, and would encourage all residents and other stakeholders to have a say when the Boundary Commission goes out to public consultation from May to August. The Commission has indicated that they will consult fully with Parish Councils and would welcome comments from other groups as part of the consultation exercise."

The Boundary Commission is due to publish its draft recommendations between November and January 2016.

A budget that will inject hundreds of millions of pounds of new economic activity into Hampshire was finalised by Hampshire County Councillors today.

The Budget for 2015/16 includes a Capital Programme representing £876m spend over four years - the biggest ever investment in jobs and supply chains. It provides resource and capacity to deliver more and better schools places, improved roads, Extra Care homes and superfast broadband.

Council Leader Roy Perry said it was a "careful, cautious and competent budget". It will keep Hampshire in a strong position to tackle the further austerity measures needed to meet the ongoing downward pressures on Local Government funding over the next few years, when revenue savings will become very much harder to find.

Starting early and using transformation programmes to generate significant efficiencies, the Council has worked through a reduction of 51 per cent in general grant from Government since 2010. The job of managing the council's finances had been more difficult than ever.

The revenue budget, which covers the cost of providing services, has had to be reduced by a further 12 per cent in 2015/16 to meet cuts in grant, and to balance demand pressures linked to an ageing population and children in care. As a priority area, additional resources of £12.5m have been built into the Children's Services budgets for vulnerable children in need of support and services. Following consultation, the budget also provides money to sustain the Short Breaks programme for children with disabilities and for youth services, while other sources of funding are explored.

The County's share of the Council Tax has been set at the same level for the sixth year in a row at £1037.88 for a Band D property. The Leader said that, with inflation at 11 per cent in that time, this represented a real term decrease of 9.9 per cent, reducing the call in real terms on stretched household finances.

He said Hampshire County Council was maintaining its record of having one of the lowest levels of Council Tax, while providing some of the highest levels of services and with one of the lowest levels of Government grant per head of population.

"According to Ofsted, our children's services are some of the best in the country. We lead the country in property and shared services, growing an expanded organisation whereby other councils buy increasing levels of professional services from us, allowing us to retain high quality staff and capacity for the benefit of Hampshire residents. The condition of Hampshire roads scores highest with road users, again by independent evaluation" he said.

The Council will need to find further savings of around £100m by 2017, on top of the £240m it is on track to have removed from its expenditure by March 2016 with this budget. The Council will begin consultation in March on a range of options to deliver the right support to residents at the right time and in the best way, which is likely to mean scaling back some areas and doing some things differently. Cllr Perry said more and more partnership working between county, district and town and parish and the voluntary sector was needed to address these pressures.

Referring to the start of work last week on a new £548,000 youth drop-in centre at Ringwood, Cllr Perry said the Town Council contributed to the running of youth services and has contributed £70,000 capital to the new centre. He encouraged other town and parish councils to think if they could do anything to help."Increasingly county funding will have to be targeted at those in greatest need - if local communities want to retain more general provision - and I applaud them if they do - then we all need to be more imaginative and supportive.

"I want the county to help communities, just as we help with the fleet of 70 community mini buses that are operated by councils of community service and parish councils across the county," he said.

Councillor Perry also paid tribute to the commitment of council staff who were having to take on new and different roles. The demography and complexity of adult social care in particular mean that the services and management capacity were stretching the very best talent across different organisations. By expanding its services to other authorities it was offering a future in an organisation that was growing its businesses, growing its capacity and creating opportunities for promotion and personal development.

Hampshire County Council has joined forces with Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, the NHS and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to encourage people to protect their families from the dangers of secondhand smoke and reduce the risk of fire by not smoking indoors.

80% of cigarette smoke is invisible and odourless and opening doors and windows does not remove its harmful poisons. Breathing in other people's tobacco smoke is known to cause a range of disorders from minor eye and throat irritation through to heart disease and lung cancer. Secondhand smoke is especially dangerous for children, babies, and women who are pregnant. Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at increased risk of asthma, meningitis and middle ear infections. Cigarettes are also the second most common cause of fires in Hampshire homes.

Hampshire County Council is also seeking people's views on smoke free homes and cars and asking people to complete their online survey or you can search online for Hampshire smoke free homes. The survey results will help to inform a decision by the borough council on whether to introduce a voluntary ban on smoking near children's outdoor play areas.

The Step Out smoke free homes campaign aims to spread the word that the best way to protect your family from the harms of cigarette smoke is to make your home and car smoke free. The campaign includes a new resource pack for primary and junior schools for pupils to learn about secondhand smoke. Schools are also taking part in a competition for pupils to design a poster to encourage people not to smoke around children in outdoor play parks, with an exclusive VIP tour of Basingstoke Fire Station on offer as the prize.

In addition the County Council and the Quit4Life Hampshire Stop Smoking Service are providing training for Children's Centre staff, Health Visitors and School Nurses.

Councillor Liz Fairhurst, Executive Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health said: "We hope this campaign will capture the imagination of local school children and give us some brilliant designs that will really help to spread the message that the best way to protect children from the dangers of cigarettes is not to smoke around them."

Station Manager Ian Wadmore of Basingstoke Fire Station said: "We are delighted to be supporting our partners with this initiative. As a fire service we would encourage people to be aware of the increased risk of fire as well as the dangers of second hand smoke. Smoker's materials, such as cigarettes and matches, cause the largest proportion of fire deaths in the home. If you do choose to smoke, stub cigarettes out properly, dispose of them carefully and always ensure that you keep matches and lighters out of children's reach."

For smokers who want to quit altogether, the local NHS Stop Smoking Service, Quit4Life, can offer friendly help and professional support for free - contact them on 0845 602 4663 or email: quit4life@nhs.net

Hampshire County Council's investment in youth services and facilities across the county was highlighted when Council Leader, Councillor Roy Perry, joined young people from Ringwood School, Ringwood Town Council and other funding partners, on-site to mark the start of construction for Ringwood's new, purpose built youth facility.

The building will be taking shape, next to the skate park, on Carvers Playing Field, over the next 24 weeks at a total cost of £548,000. Hampshire County Council has contributed £400,000 to the project from its 'Investing in Hampshire Fund' adding to a £70,000 contribution from New Forest District Council, £75,000 from the Town Council and £5,000 from Ringwood School.

Councillor Perry commented: "This is an excellent example of councils working in partnership to improve services and facilities that are especially of benefit to Hampshire's young people. I am very pleased that the County Council has been able to contribute to this investment, and I commend the Town Council and Ringwood's local community for their vision and commitment to put up some of their own funding. I am confident that this will be a well-used and much valued building, with regular activities and sports, as well as access to advice and support on a wide range of issues, such as health, learning, training and employment."

School student, Sam Whittingham, said: "It will finally be a place for young people to go after years of trying to raise the money for it, and years of having nowhere for young people to go. It will be a good place for people to meet with their friends and have fun and some independence."

Fellow student, Jade Wardle agreed. She said: "It will be really good because we have waited five years and when it is finished we will be able to come here and talk to our friends instead of using the skate park or sitting under a tree."

The building will provide a permanent base for youth-based activities and youth workers to include a youth club, as well as charities and voluntary organisations that provide advice and support services for young people. It will also be a meeting place for the Town Counci's Youth Advisers, and can be hired for parties and events.

Hampshire County Council is taking a lead in addressing the nationwide shortage of care workers. The County needs more people to provide care for the 6,000 plus residents who need support to live at home.

The County Council is working in partnership with care agencies across the county to encourage more people to consider caring as a career, by improving terms and conditions for care workers and promoting employment opportunities.

With an increasing number of disabled younger adults living longer and the growing number of older people needing care, adult social care is expanding and nationwide the sector needs at least another one million workers by 2025.

Cllr Liz Fairhurst Executive Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health said: "Most people want to remain in their own home and this is where we are seeing the greatest increase in demand for care services. There is already an army of dedicated people making a difference to people's lives every day, however, we want to strengthen this support and need more quality care workers to help us deliver choice and independence to the growing numbers of people who need assistance to live their lives.

"To help to recruit and retain more care workers we have been working with care agencies to improve the terms and conditions they offer their staff. We have sought to ensure that people employed by any of the home care providers Hampshire County Council works with are given a fair wage, and that travel time between appointments and mileage is paid. Our contracts also specify that agencies provide the option of a fixed hour contract or, for those needing greater flexibility, a zero hours contract. A further condition is that full training towards recognised qualifications is provided to help people progress their career."

Giving people the help they need to lead the lives they want can be enormously satisfying. A career in care can provide opportunities to work with a range of interesting people including older people, or people who may have a learning disability, physical disability or mental health issue.

Although there are a variety of roles, no matter which one you choose, care work is essentially about providing personal and practical support to help people live their lives. It's about supporting them to maintain their independence, dignity and control.

Just over a year ago Cindi Bronger became a carer with one of the care providers commissioned by Hampshire County Council to deliver care in people's homes. Previously she worked in customer services for a large retail chain. Her career switch from retail to care is not only improving the lives of the people she cares for but it has changed her life for the better too.

"I got a buzz helping people in my customer service job but nothing like I do now," said Cindi, aged 30. "I love my job. I look forward to each day at work. It's so rewarding enabling people to stay living in their own homes, helping them retain their independence. It's a nice feeling to know you are part of that."

Whether you are just starting out or want to take a new direction, why not choose a career where you can make a real difference and change lives. You do not necessarily need to have formal qualifications to start your career in care because you will be offered training to develop the skills and knowledge required. The most important thing for employers is that you have the right personality traits, frame of mind and values - If caring comes naturally to you so should a career.

]]>Wed, 11 Feb 2015 13:02:00 GMTHampshire County Council bids for £50m of funding http://www3.hants.gov.uk/hantswebnewslist.htm?id=667743http://www3.hants.gov.uk/hantswebnewslist.htm?id=667743
Hampshire County Council bids for £50m of funding

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Hampshire County Council is bidding for £50m from the Department for Transport Local Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund, for two highways maintenance schemes.

The fund, announced in the Government's Autumn Statement, will allocate a proportion of the highways maintenance budget to a number of major maintenance schemes which local authorities are able to bid for.

The schemes are:

A £33m scheme to improve the A31 between Winchester and the A325 at Farnham, in Surrey. This will include resurfacing, reconstruction, drainage repairs and improvements, and safety barrier repairs and upgrades over a three year period to 2018. If successful Hampshire County Council will commit £5.5m towards the programme. The application has been supported by the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership and Surrey County Council.

A £16.4m scheme to improve the A35 predominantly around the Redbridge/Totton area. This will include major maintenance and strengthening of four bridges and further major work to the Redbridge Causeway over the River Test. It will also include carriageway reconstruction and cycleway resurfacing over a three year period to 2018. If successful Hampshire County Council will commit £2.7m towards the programme. The application has been supported by the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership and Southampton City Council who have also submitted a complementary scheme along the A35.

In order to meet the funding criteria the Council has had to choose schemes that demonstrate they are to repair roads that are coming to the end of their life and therefore need urgent repair/renewal; they will provide a value for money approach; the importance of the infrastructure to the local economy and growth; and the ability to deliver the scheme by 2017/18.

Hampshire County Council's Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment, Councillor Seán Woodward, said: "We are always looking for opportunities to fund schemes in Hampshire that will improve our highway network and increase the life span of our roads and bridges, for the benefit of Hampshire's residents and its economy. If successful, this funding will enable us to bring these schemes forward and carry out work as part of our successful planned maintenance approach providing a long term solution rather than looking at costly repeated short term repairs over a long period.

"While I welcome any opportunity to bid for funding, and appreciate these particular schemes would be more difficult to fund with our normal share, I do have concerns that money from highways authorities' routine maintenance allocations has been turned into a fund to be decided by a bidding process. This means that, instead of finances being allocated equally to all authorities, some will receive more, some less, and some none at all. Putting together a credible bid requires a great deal of additional work from our highways teams; and what we are bidding for here is not additional money, it is just the same funding for highways provision cut another way."

"It goes without saying that if we secure funding for these two schemes, detailed and phased measures to manage traffic flows will be implemented, to ensure congestion is kept to a minimum and Hampshire is kept moving. I look forward to hearing if we are successful."

Hampshire will also be preparing two more bids to submit in 17/18 which will need to be delivered by 2020/21.

The funding will come form the Department for Transport's (DfT) Local Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund, announced in 2014. The DfT has £575 million to allocate to highways maintenance schemes across the country, over the next six financial years, to ensure that local highway networks are well maintained and fit for the 21st Century.

The Challenge Fund was set up to enable local highway authorities, such as Hampshire, to bid for major maintenance projects that are otherwise difficult to fund through the normal allocation that is received from central government.

As the number of premises reached by the national Superfast Broadband programme achieves two million, Hampshire County Council has unveiled the next areas due to benefit from the Hampshire programme. So far, 28,309 homes* and businesses across the county have been connected to new Superfast Broadband cabinets, enabling people to 'switch on' to broadband speeds of between 24 and 76Mbps. Alongside Government funding, Hampshire County Council and its partners are investing more than £26 million which will provide Superfast Broadband access to at least 95% of homes and businesses in Hampshire by 2018.

The announcement came on the day that the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Sajid Javid, came to Bramdean in Hampshire to see progress on the Government-funded trial of hybrid technology being undertaken in that area by Call Flow, a Kent-based telecomms company. This will benefit 1,600 premises in the hard to reach rural areas and is on top of Hampshire's Superfast Broadband programme. It is one of eight projects being run centrally by the Government and is part of national research into the means by which the 'final five per cent' of premises across the country can access superfast services.

Leader of Hampshire County Council, Councillor Roy Perry, said: "Our goal is to see as many premises as possible connected across Hampshire, making superfast services available in areas where commercial provision has not been made by the private sector.

"We have also recently launched our 'Getting Connected' programme to start to address the problem of new premises on housing developments with no access to superfast services; and are working with local district and borough councils and housing developers to make sure that broadband is given a high profile from the start of the planning process for new homes.

"Superfast Broadband is increasingly important if local households and businesses are to make the most of the huge range of opportunities offered by the internet."

People using Superfast Broadband are able to use multiple bandwidth-hungry applications at the same time and send and receive large amounts of data much more quickly and efficiently. New Superfast Broadband services are set to transform the way households use the internet, from the simple sharing of pictures and video, and on-line learning and research, to enjoying the growing boom in entertainment services available on-line.

Bill Murphy, BT Managing Director of next generation access, said: "Today marks a giant step forward in the rollout of fibre broadband in Hampshire and across the UK. Across the county more than 664,000 homes and businesses now have access to high-speed fibre broadband thanks to Hampshire Superfast Broadband and BT's own commercial fibre broadband programme. We are now reaching into the heart of scores of communities across the region that have so far, been beyond the reach of this vital technology.

"There can be few areas of modern life which are not influenced in some way by broadband - whether it's supporting how we work, how we learn, how we communicate with friends and family - or for general entertainment. Now's the time to embrace high-speed broadband and to switch to the superfast lane."

]]>Tue, 10 Feb 2015 11:50:00 GMTCommitment to build on success of Armed Forces Community Partnership http://www3.hants.gov.uk/hantswebnewslist.htm?id=666905http://www3.hants.gov.uk/hantswebnewslist.htm?id=666905
Commitment to build on success of Armed Forces Community Partnership

Tuesday, 03 Feb 2015

The successes of an armed forces partnership in Hampshire that range from protecting communities during floods, hosting job fairs and securing £1.5million for local projects over the last five years, were marked at a conference on 30 January.

Hampshire County Council, Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force, charitable organisations, health partners and districts councils joined forces to form the Civilian Military Partnership.

It aims to ensure:

no disadvantage to the Armed Forces community as a result of their service,

to improve the transition from service to civilian life and

to improve the efficiency of support services provided by local authorities, health, the voluntary sector and charities.

Today the partners met at the County Council's headquarters in Winchester to reflect on progress and to determine areas for further improvements over the next five years in the priority areas of health, education, transition and employment and support for reservists, veterans and their families.

Cllr Keith Mans, Deputy Leader of Hampshire County Council and Chair of the Civilian Military Partnership, said: "We have already had notable successes across these areas that we can, and want to, build upon. For example, to help people leaving the Armed Forces find employment and see how their skills are transferrable we have held a number of job fairs - with one in Farnborough attracting over 1,300 serving personnel. The County Council has also worked closely with HMS King Alfred Royal Naval Reserve in promoting its recruitment and this has enabled the Council to further develop its own reservist policies to actively support employment of reservists and enable them to carry out their training.

"Improvements in the support service-family pupils receive has been achieved by working closely with schools to make sure that their specific needs are recognised and understood, which has been recognised nationally as best practice.

"One of the most memorable achievements for me, has to be how the operation of the Hampshire Civilian Military Partnership facilitated the major contribution which regular and reserve forces made in the protection of communities affected by unprecedented flooding in Hampshire in the winter of 2014. The speed and efficiency of the resources brought by the Armed Forces greatly reduced the suffering and financial loss which would otherwise have occurred as a result of storm, river and ground water flooding.

"The success of the partnership reflects the strength of the relationship between Hampshire County Council and the Armed Forces, which was also recognised nationally when the County was selected as one of the Welfare Pathway Pilot Authorities in 2010 and to be the second local authority to sign a community covenant in 2011."

Colonel Andrew Barr, Deputy Commander 11 Infantry Brigade and Co-Chair of the Civilian Military Partnership, said: "The importance of the Armed Forces Community Partnership is fundamental to our operational success. Our servicemen, veterans and their families have a growing confidence in the support they get from across Hampshire. This is really important to us. Our people must be able to deal with the pressures of service life. Equally, they need to feel properly supported by society when they decide to transition to a new life outside of the Armed Forces.

"The partnership we have, in this respect, with Hampshire has changed immeasurably for the better and we are enormously grateful for the tremendous efforts that have been made to draw our two communities closer together."

Hampshire has also been one of the most successful in terms of securing funding for projects to better integrate the Armed Forces and civilian communities. As a result, over £1.5 million in Armed Forces Community Covenant Grants have been awarded for local projects.

These include:

a joint healthy lifestyles project between Bridgemary School in Gosport and The Navy;

the creation of a social enterprise which provides jobs and vocational training for the spouses and dependents of forces personnel, service leavers and civilians within military communities,

new camping pods at Tile Barn activity centre in the New Forest that forces families can use free of charge in the school holidays and has been designed to accommodate people who were seriously wounded in service;

a new first responder vehicle equipped with defibrillator that is based at RAF Odiham and deployed in the local community.

Councillor Seán Woodward, Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment at Hampshire County Council, said: "As forecast, Hampshire saw some snow last night, between 1cm and 6cm across the county. There were 55 Highways salting lorries out through the night making sure roads were treated ahead of the morning rush hour so that people could get to work and school as normal.

"Most areas were treated with just rock salt, which helps prevent ice forming on surfaces, but snow ploughs were also out where needed including the A354 in the New Forest. It's also good to hear reports of some of the 4,000 salt bins we've placed at the heart of communities being put to good use by good neighbours. I am pleased to say we've not had any reports of problems and that the network ran smoothly this morning.

"Priority 2 routes are being treated again this afternoon, Priority 1 routes this evening, and Community routes in the morning. As always, the weather forecast, road and air temperatures will be constantly monitored so decisions can be made on when and where to salt the roads."